Heatwaves and grapevine yield in the Douro region, crop model simulations

The new EU Green Deal aims to achieve GHG emissions reduction by at least 55% by 2030 and a climate neutral EU economy by 2050.
REDWine concept will be realized through the establishment of an integrated Living Lab demonstrating the viability of the system at TRL 7. The Living Lab will be able to utilize 2 ton of fermentation off-gas/year (90% of total CO2 produced in the fermenter) and 80 m3 of liquid effluent (100% of the liquid effluent generated during fermenter washing) to produce 1 ton (dry weight) of Chlorella biomass/year. This biomass will be processed under a downstream extraction process to obtain added-value extracts and applied in food, cosmetic and agricultural end-products and to generate a new EcoWine. REDWine will focus on the recovery of off-gas from a 20.000L fermenter of red wine production existing in Adega Cooperativa de Palmela (ACP, located in Palmela, Portugal).

The mechanization of pruning and harvesting in vineyards has increased the risk of soil compaction. To reclaim soil properties or avoid this degradation process, it is crucial to properly manage the soil organic matter, and the application of compost derived from the vines themselves is a strategy to achieve this. The objective of this study was to evaluate the properties of soil treated with different doses of compost applied both on the vine row and the inter rows of a Vitis vinifera crop.

The addition of fungal chitosan in wine is allowed since 2009 to release some spoilage microorganisms such as Brettanomyces bruxellensis (OIV/OENO 338A/2009; EC 53/2011).

Global climate change affects regional climates and hold implications for wine growing regions worldwide. Although winegrowers are constantly adapting to internal and external factors, it seems relevant to develop tools, which will allow them to better define actual and future agro-climatic potentials. Within this context, we develop a modelling approach, able to simulate the impact of environmental conditions and constraints on vine behaviour and to highlight potential adaptation strategies according to different climate change scenarios. Our modeling approach, named SEVE (Simulating Environmental impacts on Viticultural Ecosystems), provides a generic modeling framework for simulating grapevine growth and berry ripening under different conditions and constraints (slope, aspect, soil type, climate variability…) as well as production strategies and adaptation rules according to climate change scenarios. Each activity is represented by an autonomous agent able to react and adapt its reaction to the variability of environmental constraints. Using this model, we have recently analyzed the evolution of vineyards’ exposure to climatic risks (frost, pathogen risk, heat wave) and the adaptation strategies potentially implemented by the winegrowers. This approach, implemented for two climate change scenarios, has been initiated in France on traditional (Loire Valley) and emerging (Brittany) vineyards. The objective is to identify the time horizons of adaptations and new opportunities in these two regions. Carried out in collaboration with wine growers, this approach aims to better understand the variability of climate change impacts at local scale in the medium and long term.

The use of pesticides for vine growing is responsible for generating an important volume of wastewater. In 2009, 13 processes were authorized for wastewater treatment but they are expensive and the toxicological impact of the secondary metabolites that are formed is not clearly established. Recently photodecomposition processes have been studied and proved an effectiveness to degrade pesticides and to modify their structures (Maheswari et al., 2010, Lassale et al., 2014). In this field, Pulsed Light (PL) seems to be an interesting and efficient process (Baranda et al., 2017). Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the PL technology as a new process for the degradation of pesticides.